Verticalnet Releases Upgrade of Supply Management Suite

Malvern, PA — October 24, 2005 — Verticalnet Inc., a provider of on-demand supply management solutions, announced that the newest release of its XE Supply Management Suite is in production worldwide.

Verticalnet said the new suite was created due to the evolving needs of leading procurement organizations and with substantial input from customers. More than 20 customers have gone live, simultaneously, on this new release through Verticalnet On Demand.

Nathanael Lentz, president and CEO of Verticalnet, said his company has added global sourcing functionality like additional language support and center-led sourcing to make the offering more competitive. We have made a significant investment in the new release, and we are pleased that customers like Premier [a San Diego, Calif.-based healthcare alliance] and the WWRE [a B2B exchange for retailers and suppliers] are able to take immediate advantage of the new functionality through our on-demand capability.

Verticalnet said it designed XE 5.2 to maximize the amount of spend under management across diverse global organizations. Managed spend, or the amount of corporate spending and the number of suppliers who are managed through a technology enabled process, is a critical metric in deriving sustained benefits from corporate supply management initiatives, according to the provider. Verticalnet said XE 5.2 focuses on ease of use, integration and adoption, as well as advanced capabilities.

As a group purchasing organization for the healthcare industry, our value proposition to our members is effective sourcing of goods and services from thousands of suppliers worldwide," said Joe Pleasant, Premier's chief information officer. "We believe that the new release of the Verticalnet XE suite with added language support, global sourcing capabilities and document integration will further improve our ability to provide sustainable savings for our members today and in the future."

Robert Heaton, executive vice president and chief financial officer at the Worldwide Retail Exchange, added: "The new release of XE 5.2 is particularly significant for the Exchange, since it offers a world-class sourcing platform to our customers."